I am constantly picking up dry food that falls out of the cat bowl and onto the floor. I always try not to overfill the bowl. Does anyone know of a bowl that keeps the dry food off the floor? I am forever throwing away food that falls on the floor. And am I the only one with messy cats - or is this a common problem?
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Dry Food on the Floor
- Thread starter reginariv
- Start Date
I constantly find little pellets of dry food on the floor...you are definitely not alone
Could be worse...I occasionally find little toy mice in the dry food
Could be worse...I occasionally find little toy mice in the dry food
all the time here..i got a matt for the kittens..it helps some.
i've got a placemat under the bowls to help make it easier to clean. i've just got a vinyl placemat.
i found the cloth ones get too dirty. i also have one cat who likes to knock his kibble out of the bowl onto the floor to eat it (no matter what kind of bowl he has). so i have pretty much resigned myself to sweeping the kitchen every day.
I have one cat that is constantly scooping the food onto the floor with his paws, he seems to like to eat it off the floor. But I think he scoops more than he eats.
Yasmine scoops food out of her bowl on the floor to eat it in small portions...she normally eats what she scoops out but i still have a few strays hanging around outside the bowl. I just keep everything on a mat....
I think it mostly depends on how you cat gets the food on the floor...does he scoop it out?
Our cat Max used to scoop his food out of the bowl with his paw and then every night we would completely sweep and vaccum the house and the next morning we would wake up and the entire kitchen and the rest of the house would be covered with bits of dry food again.
Here is what worked for us;
1. Buy a LARGE stainless steel (or any other type) of food dish, just make sure it is secure so the cat(s) can't tip it over or drag it around.
2. Take a smaller bowl (any type), we used a tupperware bowl, and put it inside the larger bowl.
3. Take Aluminum Foil and roll it up so it looks like a long snake and then make it into a circle and put it around the small bowl inside of the large bowl.
Don't roll the Aluminum too tight, you want it to have a roughness to it, don't let it get smooth.
4. Fill small bowl with food, don't fill it to high, maybe just halfway.
5. When kitty goes to put his paw into the dish and drag out food it falls onto the aluminum foil and gets stuck so he can't get it all over the floor.
Another idea you might want to try is everytime you see kitty playing with his/her food just distract them with a toy.
Hope this helps.
Amy
Our cat Max used to scoop his food out of the bowl with his paw and then every night we would completely sweep and vaccum the house and the next morning we would wake up and the entire kitchen and the rest of the house would be covered with bits of dry food again.
Here is what worked for us;
1. Buy a LARGE stainless steel (or any other type) of food dish, just make sure it is secure so the cat(s) can't tip it over or drag it around.
2. Take a smaller bowl (any type), we used a tupperware bowl, and put it inside the larger bowl.
3. Take Aluminum Foil and roll it up so it looks like a long snake and then make it into a circle and put it around the small bowl inside of the large bowl.
Don't roll the Aluminum too tight, you want it to have a roughness to it, don't let it get smooth.
4. Fill small bowl with food, don't fill it to high, maybe just halfway.
5. When kitty goes to put his paw into the dish and drag out food it falls onto the aluminum foil and gets stuck so he can't get it all over the floor.
Another idea you might want to try is everytime you see kitty playing with his/her food just distract them with a toy.
Hope this helps.
Amy
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My cats are really messy. They are always knocking their food bowls and water bowl over when they are playing together. They will not eat the food that falls on the floor though. They were getting food everywhere, so I got them a large plastic sterilite container (the kind you find at Wal-Mart) that is aobut four or five inches deep. It is wide enough so that they have plenty of room to crouch down infront of their bowls to eat. When they flip their bowls or spill food it stays within the walls of the container and I can just dump it into the garbage.
My cats don't eat everything in one sitting, so they snack on the food all day. They make a mess like yours but it doesn't stay like that the next time they snack. One of mine seems to eats the loose food off the floor before he continues with the bowl food.
I really think they don't like their whiskers touching the sides of the bowl as they eat, and most bowl designs this is gonna happen. That might be why the "paw feeders" push it out. I know I've got a couple of cute bowls that I picked up at PetsMart before the boys came home. They're shallow and wide and look like a cat on its back with its belly being the "bowl." Unfortunately the inside of the bowl is a smooth, regular concavity so that they constantly push food out as they're eating. Doesn't help that DH overfills the bowls
. I swear I throw away as much as they eat!
Here too...I think it is very normal and the cats are not straving
I also put a vinyl placemat under the bowls. I just pick up whatever falls out and put it back in their bowls so I don't have to throw it away. They don't scoop it out; they kind of knock it out accidentally as they're eating.Originally Posted by RoseHawke
I really think they don't like their whiskers touching the sides of the bowl as they eat, and most bowl designs this is gonna happen. That might be why the "paw feeders" push it out. I know I've got a couple of cute bowls that I picked up at PetsMart before the boys came home. They're shallow and wide and look like a cat on its back with its belly being the "bowl." Unfortunately the inside of the bowl is a smooth, regular concavity so that they constantly push food out as they're eating. Doesn't help that DH overfills the bowls. I swear I throw away as much as they eat!
My Kitty does the same thing ...i dont know if a biger bowl on the sides would help maybe ......i dont know how to pevent it i just sweep after shes done....cause i am used to it .lol
That's exactly what mine do, too!! Max throws the food out, and Serena eats it off the floor until it's her turn to eat out of the dish!!
As I was getting ants who came to eat the food that fell out of hte bowls I now put the bowls on a plastic tray with a lip all round, so that nothing ends up on the actual floor. This has helped a lot.
Jake is a messy cat too. I put a rug under the bowls and I use really large bowls and only fill them about 1/3 full. It cuts down on a lot of food spillage!
Rosie and Sophie often drop kibbles. I've watched them eat and they take some in their mouth then move their heads away from their bowls while they chew.
I think they enjoy eating food off of the floor. I know one of my cats, Mussy will get a piece of food from the dish, taste it, drop it on the ground and then eat it. I think just like humans, cats have their own eating habits.
Gandalf likes to eat out of the bowl but Samwise would rather bat the food around a little first. I think it's because he has a higher prey drive than Gandalf does. So I always have dry food on the floor at my house. I don't have to sweep that often except where Samwise has batted the food under a door the cabinet.
I'm thinking about getting one of those toys you can put food in and see how he does with it. I bet he'd love it. Maybe for Christmas.
I'm thinking about getting one of those toys you can put food in and see how he does with it. I bet he'd love it. Maybe for Christmas.
